Sebi Mulls Demat Mode For All Scrips
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is planning to bring all actively traded scrips into the mandatory dematerialised trading mode.
The aim is to bring most stocks traded on the National Stock Exchange, Calcutta Stock Exchange, Ahmedabad Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange, which has more than 7,000 scrips listed, into the demat trading mode.
The regulator will soon call a meeting of the working group on depositories to extend the current list of 579 scrips that are on the demat trading list. The final lot of scrips will move into demat trading from June 26.
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Sebi is now keen to lay out a roadmap for all the remaining actively traded stocks in the market to move to the demat trading mode.
"We have sought details of all actively traded stocks from leading stock exchanges. With demat trading having gained success with retail investors, we are planning to push all actively traded stocks to the mandatory demat trading mode. A timetable for this will be laid down at the next meeting of the group, expected shortly," said a senior Sebi official.
"Once this list has been announced, we should have almost all scrips on the NSE, CSE and ASE in the mandatory demat mode and at least all actively traded stocks on BSE as well. This time around, the stress is not on a fixed number of scrips but on ensuring that the entire market goes into the compulsory demat trading mode at the earliest," said the official.
If the market regulator does go ahead with its plans, almost the entire market would be moved to the demat trading mode.
At present, about 92 per cent of all settlements on the NSE, in terms of value, take place in demat form.
Once all actively traded stocks have been moved to this mode of settlement, the figure could rise well past 95 per cent.
Barely a year ago, the regulator had decided to push the market into a mandatory demat trading mode for all investors against stiff opposition from a section of the market.
The market regulator, however, stuck to its guns and kept expanding the list of scrips for demat trading. With investors seeing the merits of the regulator's move, demat has now become an accepted norm.